McConnell Says Foes Bugged His Campaign Headquarters

U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell
accused political opponents of bugging his campaign headquarters
after a recording of a private meeting with his aides was posted
on Mother Jones magazine’s website.

During the Feb. 2 strategy session in Louisville, the
Kentucky Republican and his aides discussed ways to attack
potential Democratic adversaries in the 2014 campaign, including
actress Ashley Judd, according to the audio recording. Judd said
last month she wouldn’t challenge McConnell.

The five-term senator yesterday called the 12-minute clip
the work of “left wing” foes. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation is examining the lawmaker’s allegations, according
to the New York Times. Mother Jones said in a statement that it
was “not involved in the making of the tape” and that it
understood it wasn’t from a microphone planted in the office.

“They were bugging our headquarters -- quite a Nixonian
move,” McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, told
reporters yesterday when asked about the recording. “This is
what you get from the political left in America, these days.”

The clip was provided to Mother Jones by a person who asked
not to be identified, according to the magazine. On the
recording, McConnell aides discuss ways to target Judd,
including her support of President Barack Obama, same-sex
marriage and abortion rights. They also talked about using
Judd’s past battles with depression, acknowledged in her 2011
memoir, according to the audio.

“This is the Whac-A-Mole period of the campaign,”
McConnell, 71, said during the meeting, according to the audio.
“When anybody sticks their head up, do them out.”

Romney Remarks

Mother Jones yesterday defended posting the clip and
reporting on what was said on it. Its reporter, David Corn, also
broke a 2012 story about Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney saying at a private fundraiser that 47 percent of
Americans would vote to re-elect Obama because they rely on
handouts, don’t pay income taxes and consider themselves to be
“victims.” That story also used a surreptitious recording.

Cara Tripicchio, a spokeswoman for Judd, criticized the
McConnell campaign for considering making her battle with
depression a campaign issue, according to the Associated Press.

“This is yet another example of the politics of personal
destruction,” Tripicchio said in a statement, according to the
news service. “We expected nothing less from Mitch McConnell
and his camp than to take a personal struggle such as
depression, which many Americans cope with on a daily basis, and
turn it into a laughing matter.”